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Deadpool Is on Disney Plus, but Not Part of the Official MCU. Yet

He's barely even part of the X-Men (he's a trainee!), but he could very well someday be an Avenger.

Caitlin Petrakovitz Director of audience
Caitlin Petrakovitz studies the Marvel Cinematic Universe like it's a course in school, with an emphasis on the Infinity Saga years. As an audience expert, she rarely writes but when she does it's most certainly about Star Trek, Marvel, DC, Westworld, San Diego Comic-Con and great streaming properties. Or soccer, that's a thing she loves, too.
Caitlin Petrakovitz
2 min read

This is X-Force. Not an Avengers subsidiary. 

20th Century Fox

Deadpool is not an Avenger. 

Yet.

Deadpool is not an X-Men. (X-Man?)

Yet.

Deadpool is a mercenary with his own agenda and zero rules.

Deadpool is part of the Marvel comics universe. 

And even after the huge Disney-Fox deal closed, bringing many Marvel characters (back) under the umbrella of Marvel Studios, Deadpool in his current onscreen incarnation is still not connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. None of the X-Men movies are, at this moment, because they're part of their own shared universe.  

Someday, that may change. Rumors still abound that Phase 4 is building to adding the X-Men — or that a certain M-word mention in a certain recent show means more than the characters realized and could somehow set the entire MCU on a different path. Yet, for now, still, the X-Men mutants and the Avengers do not coexist in the same universe. It's a comics-based world, though, and maybe the Quantum Realm of Ant-Man 3 will change all that we know about the current MCU timeline

The MCU now comprises almost 30 Marvel Studios films, having begun over 10 years ago with Iron Man. Since then it has added characters like Captain America, Nebula and Loki.

Even with reports of 2019's Avengers: Endgame being this current team's last outing, we can pretty much rest assured the MCU will seemingly continue forever (thanks, Kevin Feige!) on the big screen and Disney Plus.

To be clear, the current Marvel Cinematic Universe should probably now be renamed the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, and right now it includes: 

That's it. As far as we know right now, at least.

If anything, Deadpool can be called an X-Men trainee — or, even better, founder/"leader" of X-Force. But please, stop asking if he's an Avenger at least for a few years. (Or after Comic-Con this weekend maybe, who knows?!?!)

Will Deadpool ever be in an MCU film? Sure, maybe, lbh probably. But until we get a glimpse of the new slate of MCU films (🙏 Saturday???), all we know for sure is that right now DP is a solo artist. 

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This piece was first published May 19, 2018, and has since been updated to reflect the fact that Disney now owns a whole lot of new characters and also is moving ever-closer to incorporating one of the best Marvel characters in its sprawling multiverse.